[sustran] Asia's 'only-poor-people-ride-transit', KL monorail & isolation

[Su-Lin Chee]

As someone working on Kuala Lumpur’s public transportation information 
system, I feel behooved to respond to some preceding posts:

1. Mr. Bradshaw’s sustainable transportation comments: I agree 
wholeheartedly about the frustration of seeing Asians’ “only-poor-
people-ride-transit bias.” That, to me, is the paramount obstacle to 
KL’s public transport usage, over and above political and economic 
issues. It is a class thinking and cars are seen as a class and status 
symbol. Public transport, especially buses, is seen as milling around 
with the masses and the marginals of society. The moment I mention the 
word “buses”, it seems as if a mental barrier goes up in most middle 
class and above people – of horror and non-acceptability. What to do??

2. Mr. Fjellstromn’s KL monorail comments: among KL’s rail transit 
systems, the monorail may be deemed the 2nd most successful or maybe 
even the most successful, in terms of customer uptake and perceived 
relevance of route. It is almost always packed and goes through some 
of the city’s most congested and popular parts. The one fiasco is how 
the line doesn’t join up with KL’s train hub: KL Sentral. 

3. Mr Pardo’s Le Corbusier comment: Yes! The need to have engineers to 
plan fast cities has resulted in what I feel is a very isolating city. 
On an anecdotal level, many mid-term visitors to KL express feelings 
of alienation and a lack of ground-level community interaction.

Best wishes,

Su-Lin Chee

project manager
klang valley public transportation information system
vector designs
www.vectordesigns.org
54a jalan kemuja
bangsar utama
59000 kuala lumpur
tel/fax +603.22826363
mobile +6016.2183363